Error 53 - The network path was not found

Question

I have a machine in my Active Directory Domain that I can no longer "net view" from other machines in the domain.

This is a Windows XP Pro machine. It is hosting a VMWare virtual of my Domain Controller.

If I attempt to net view [machine name] I get system error 53, The network path was not found.

This is not a DNS issue, the same thing happens with the machine's IP.

I don't think it's a firewall issue, I turned the firewall off on this machine.

As I mentioned, it has worked in the past, and then stopped for no reason that I can see. I (intentionally) didn't change the software.

I CAN get to the VMs hosted on this machine, can connect to their shares, net view them, etc. All other machines can see each other. In fact, the problem machine can see other machines and access their shares just fine.

I tried removing the machine from the domain and re-adding it. I tried deleting the shares and recreating them.

Not sure how to troubleshoot this any further. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Hard to say without looking at network traces and event logs. Also have had weird issues with vmware shared folders for the guest VM. I'd disable that as a troubleshooting step. http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1012140 shows how VMware shared folders can affect guest VMs sometimes.